While on some drive days we had to be up at the crack of dawn to head off to our next destination, the morning of my birthday we had a much nicer departure time of 9am, which was definitely welcomed thanks to the pre-birthday celebrations the night before. Started my day with a much needed breakfast and then it was onwards to Vienna. While the weather was rainy and rather miserable, the drive itself took us through some beautiful mountainous scenery. Our first stop when we arrived in Vienna was the Schönbrunn Palace, although sadly we only had time for a few quick photos and didn’t get a chance to explore the grounds. On to the hostel and then a quick dinner of Wiener Schnitzel before we headed off to spend the evening at Prater Park. I love amusement parks so this basically topped off the amazing birthday I was having. A ride on the Wiener Riesenrad, the 100+ year old ferris wheel, is a must and it gives you incredible views of the park.

The next day we had a free day to explore the city. We started with a stroll through the Natural History Museum before wandering around the city to see some of its many historical buildings including the Hofburg Palace, St Stephen’s Cathedral, the opera house, Parliament and the Rathaus. During our exploring, we found time to visit a cafe and sample one of Austria’s most famous desserts, the Sachertorte. We then had a visit to the Schnaps Museum where we were given a brief overview of the history of schnapps and then the chance to try some samples and buy something. That evening, on the recommendation of our bus driver, most of us went to dinner at a restaurant called Centimeter, where its specialities include a 2 metre sausage, a huge sword holding a variety of Austrian delicacies as well as meals served in mini wheelbarrows and shovels. I settled on a simple Cordon Bleu which I, like most of us there, struggled to finish.

My Food

Vienna was a bit of a no brainer for the meal I was to recreate. What’s more Viennese that a Wiener Schnitzel. Plus it was nice and simple to prepare, the veal is flattened until its super thin, coated in egg and breadcrumbs and the shallow fried until golden. Served mine with potatoes and salad leaves. Neglected to buy lemon to garnish it with, I used some bottled lemon juice which still tasted great. While I had thought about making a Sachertorte, the cake I would be making would also technically be my Birthday cake for this birthday so wanted to do something a bit more interesting. Inspired by my birthday celebrations last year in Prater Park, I decided to make a colourful amusement park themed Ferris Wheel Cake.

The cake consisted of basic butter cake that was coloured an assortment of colours and assembled into checkerboard pattern with some of the inside cut out to fill with candy and then covered in Peanut Butter Frosting before being decorated with chocolates to look like a ferris wheel.